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Saturday, April 14, 2012

The answer turns out to be very interesting and possibly tied to parakeet noses...

that using color for baby gender identification is (perhaps) a pretty recent development. Earlier in the twentieth century, color identification was used but it was reversed. That is, pink was used for boys and blue for girls. This was noted in several newspaper articles (1914, 1918) advising that since pink was the stronger color and better for boys whereas blue is more delicate and therefore more suitable for girls.

Historically red is the color of blood, war and masculinity. In the past red often faded to pink, but clothing was not the easy comodity it is now, so clothing was used until it wore out or no longer fit, and often passed on to others. So men wore pink. Or at least the most feasible theory goes...

One older gentleman remembers "My dad, when he was alive,

had a picture from when he was a toddler, and he had

on a pink dress like thing - it was their equivilent of a onesie for ease of diaper changing.

It is also stated that the current identification didn’t become uniform until the 1950s. Nazi Germany made homosexuals wear a pink marking and this may have had something to do with the switch in gender identification color.

But it is also said that blue may be associated with boys because having a boy baby was considered associated with good luck in ancient times. So the boy baby was dressed in blue since that was the color of the sky where the gods lived and was considered a way of warding off bad luck. Same thing in Greece where blue eyes were considered to be able to turn away evil.

In ancient China, red dye was relatively cheap and plentiful whereas blue dye was much more expensive and rare. So it was considered appropriate to dress a son in blue because he would bring a dowry to the family when he married.

Of course, I think it is the observation that male parakeets noses are blue whereas the nose of the female parakeet is pink.

Snippet from page 67 from the book title 'The Color Answer Book: From the World's Leading Color Expert' by Leatrice Eiseman

The history of pink for girls and blue for boys in not altogether clear, as it springs from folklore that can change with the cultural origin. But the censensus is that in most cultures, blue is considered a protective color and since boy babies were valued more than a girl babies, they were dressed in blue. Girl, according to old European folktales sprang forth from soft unfolding pink roses. Similarly, in many cultures, the feminine role was associated with ruffles, sentiment, and nurturing, while the masculine side with earning a living in stedfast, laboring blue.

Be prepare to pay more for your night at the movies. Charge more for hits, less for flops, offered as solution to increasing movie theater revenue.

It's time for studios and the cinema industry to stop charging the same price to see any movie any day of the week, a media industry analyst said in a strongly worded research note Friday.

"Movie exhibitors are operating with the largest amount of excess capacity of any industry we could find in the free world," wrote Todd Juenger, a senior analyst at Bernstein Research. Nearly 93% of theater seats go unfilled, he said, including 99% between Monday and Thursday.

Over the years, many industry players and observers have called for "variable pricing" for movies. The basic idea is that the more popular films should cost more to see, while those that don't pack theaters would get a discount. But theater owners and studios have resisted, in large part because they are concerned about the negative perceptions that would come from some new offerings costing less to see than others.

Currently, the only variable pricing at cinemas typically occurs for matinees and evening shows, as well as children or senior citizens' tickets versus adults. On occasion, exhibitors quietly and without fanfare offer discounts for showings during the week, but virtually never as a matter of an advertised policy.

Juenger noted that everything from airplane tickets to hotel rooms and even DVDs at Wal-Mart have some degree of variable pricing. "The only industry we could think of that is remotely similar to movies in terms of flat pricing with big spikes in utilization is fast-food," he observed.

The analyst claimed that with higher pricing "The Hunger Games" could have grossed $250 million worldwide on its opening weekend, compared withthe $219 million that the Lionsgate release actually collected. "I also submit that [the costly flop] 'John Carter' could have eked out more total revenue, especially post-opening weekend, by lowering prices," he added.

Of course, with domestic box office receipts up 20% so far this year, providing a bright spot at a time when DVD revenue continues to fall, it's doubtful that Hollywood is looking to shake things up in the near term.

Photo: Matt Loeb, head of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, at the union's office in Studio City in 2011. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times

IATSE and Studios reach a contract. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract that averts a potential showdown with the major studios.

IATSE represents more than 100,000 entertainment industry workers, including camera operators, set decorators, grips and others who work behind the scenes on movies and TV shows.

Under the proposed agreement, IATSE members would receive 2% annual wage increase over three years -- in line with raises negotiated by other entertainment unions . Employers agreed to increase by 20% their hourly their contribution to the union's health plan.

"Our goals going into these negotiations have been met,'' IATSE President Matt Loeb said in a statement. "We were successful in maintaining the pensions of our retirees."

Members with dependents, however, would also be required for the first time to pay premiums between $25 and $50 a month for healthcare coverage, said on person familiar with the deal.

The union agree to the concession as way to help close a large deficit in the union's health and pension plans - projected to be more than $350 million over the next three years because of rising investment losses and medical costs. The two sides have been sharply divided over how to close the deficit.

IATSE also expanded to expand the so-called 30 mile zone in Los Angeles -- the area that determines work rules and rates paid to union members -- to include Agua Dulce and Pomona, among other locations.

If ratified by members, the new three-year contract that takes effects July 31.

The top man a CBS brings home 70 million a year "Two Broke Girls" and one rich CEO. CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves catapulted to the top of the media pay ladder in 2011 with a compensation package valued at $69.9 million, according to documents filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The 62-year-old executive's package jumped about 21% over the $57.7 million that he reaped in 2010, which included a $27.5-million bonus.

“CBS significantly outpaced the industry in 2011 in terms of shareholder return," the media company said in a statement. "In fact, the company is the second best performing stock in the entire S&P 500 since March of 2009... The vast majority of this year’s pay is once again keyed to performance-based measures, closely aligning the overall value of the compensation with that of the company’s shareholders.”

CBS stock has been on a tear, soaring 42% last year. The stock closed Friday at $32.50 a share, an eye-popping increase over the $4 a share that it was trading for in 2009, following the market collapse. Investors have bid up the stock, in part, due to the anticipation that CBS will rake in hundreds of millions of dollars in political advertising dollars this year as candidates and political action committees try to influence the outcome of elections.

The company's assets include the CBS broadcast network, home to such hit shows as "Two Broke Girls," "NCIS" and "Survivor," local TV and radio stations and billboards. CBS also owns premium pay cable channel Showtime and Simon & Schuster publishing house.

Sumner Redstone, the executive chairman of CBS Corp., received compensation of $20.3 million in 2011. That means the 88-year-old mogul, who has been slowing down in recent years, collected more than $41 million in 2011 for his executive position at CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc. (Redstone received $21 million as executive chairman of Viacom).

Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman made $43 million in 2011, considerably less than his 2010 package of $84.5 million.

Viacom and CBS traditionally lead the media pack because of the dual-stock structure of the two companies. Redstone controls nearly 80% of the voting stock, making it difficult for other shareholders to mount a successful protest over governance issues, including executive compensation.

Though not in the same stratosphere of Apple Inc.’s new chief executive, Tim Cook, whose compensation totaled $378 million in 2011, Moonves’ pay still is considerably higher than his peers in the media world.

For example, Moonves received more than twice that of Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert Iger, who collected $31.4 million in fiscal 2011, and nearly three times the amount of Time Warner Chief Executive Jeffrey Bewkes, who took in $25.9 million. Both Disney and Time Warner are much larger than CBS.

'The Cabin in the Woods' runs through all the scary-movie genre's cliches with a wink and a nudge. The satire displaces much of the thrills and chills, although there is lots of blood.

You'd think by now college kids would know better than to head to an isolated cabin deep in the woods for a laid-back weekend of beer, swimming and truth or dare, because… cue spooky music … as everyone knows by now most of them are destined to die, falling to their blood-soaked ends like dominoes: One. By. One.

Actually that's exactly what longtime horror-making buddies Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard are counting on — that everyone knows all the tricks and tropes in the scary movie playbook. Because really"The Cabin in the Woods" is an inside joke — a one-way ticket to all the genre's worst nightmares told in a very tongue and cheeky "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" ('92 movie, TV series, multiple spinoffs, all conceived by Whedon) style.

The laughs come easily, the screams not so much. It's as if the filmmakers got so wrapped up in the satire they forgot to include the intense sensation of rising dread that creates all the thrills and chills that are part of the attraction.

The jock, the blond, the nerd, the good guy, the "virgin" — they are all there — with Anna Hutchison, Chris Hemsworth, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams and Kristen Connolly slipping right into their stereotypes. Now if that brand of humorous horror homage sounds a little too much "been there, done that" — "Scream 1,2,3,4," say — Whedon and Goddard have a few more tricks up their sleeve.

The new wrinkle in time is some FBI-like black ops that may or may not factor in to the health and well-being of the blond, the jock, the nerd.... It allows the filmmakers to take some digs at Big Brother-styled surveillance, reality TV, GPS-technology and other high-tech horrors that a wired world, and some weird thinking, might spawn. The setting is mission control with everyone settling in to monitor the cabin action in wide-screen comfort, though whether it's sanctioned snooping isn't clear for a while. Truman (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford), with white shirts, ties and big-shot worries, are the men in charge, at least of the office pool and making sure the pizza gets delivered.
It all begins innocently enough with good girl Dana (Connolly) mooning over the professor who dumped her and packing weighty textbooks instead of a bikini. Her friend and roomy Jules (Hutchison) has just gone blond, a look that totally works for her football-playing hunk Curt (Hemsworth). Marty (Kranz) is the dope-smoking geek who turns up late but is likely to be early on the chopping block, and Holden (Williams) is the new guy, both stud and dean's list material, so a marked man as well.
All the actors do a decent job with whatever is thrown at them — usually sharp objects. There are some clever cameos to watch for and someone will no doubt eventually compile a list of the many horror movie references thrown into the grizzle and guts.
Goddard, who directs from a script co-written with Whedon, sets the tone from the beginning with a lot of quirky camera angles — you may be tempted to try to adjust the screen like a crooked picture. But there's no time really because that ever-diminishing group of friends is quickly forced to face off endless evil, including — but not limited to — zombies, aliens, fearsome monsters, graves, ghosts, grim clowns, grim reapers, dead-eyed dolls, SWAT teams, janitors, more zombies.
There is a lot of blood — in fact it's hard to think of many scenes that don't have a lot of blood.
Making his directing debut with "Cabin," Goddard, cinematographer Peter Deming ("Drag Me to Hell") and production designer Martin Whist ("Super 8") have packed the dark shadows and tight spaces of the cabin world with countless nostalgic touches — if you can call weird porcelain dolls, rusted chains and rows of knives nostalgic.

It seems America's bankers are tired of all the abuse. They've decided to speak out.

True, they're doing it from behind the ropeline, in front of friendly crowds at industry conferences and country clubs, meaning they don't have to look the rest of America in the eye when they call us all imbeciles and complain that they shouldn't have to apologize for being so successful.

But while they haven't yet deigned to talk to protesting America face to face, they are willing to scribble out some complaints on notes and send them downstairs on silver trays. Courtesy of a remarkable story by Max Abelson at Bloomberg, we now get to hear some of those choice comments.
Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, for instance, is not worried about OWS:

"Who gives a crap about some imbecile?" Marcus said. "Are you kidding me?"

About Me

Actor, Casting Director, Director, Broadcaster, Writer, Singer, Artistic
Director, Dramatur, Producer, Professor, Coach, Husband, Grandfather, Marketing
Professional and life long student Art Lynch joined the staff of John Robert
Powers in 1999. Lynch is also an adjunct professor at the Community College of
Southern Nevada, the Morning Edition Weekend Host for Nevada Public Radio and
one of 67 individuals who represent 126,000 actors as a member of the Board of
Directors of the Screen Actors Guild. He is the past president of the Nevada
Branch of the Screen Actors Guild and of the Professional Audio/Visual Communications
Association. A resident of Nevada since 1984, Lynch has an MA in Communications
from UNLV and a BA in Theater, Speech and Mass Communications from the
University of Illinois, Chicago. He is currently pursuing post-graduate studies
in theater, education and the entertainment industry. Art Lynch studied and
practiced the craft of acting in Chicago and California before settling in
Nevada. With his wife Laura, Art owned and operated a successful marketing
company with national clientele. Art was personally responsible for casting and
directing over 1,000 commercials and industrials, as well as assisting on film
and television projects in many ways. His career also includes earning awards
as a wire service, magazine and broadcast journalist. He is most proud,
however, of his daughters. Ann is a PhD in neuroscience and Beth is the proud
mother of his grandchildren, Evan and Elijah.

Short Film Festival

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